Matsunaka powers up Hawks

by John E. Gibson (Jul 10, 2008)

The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks have straightened up and started to fly right.

Nobuhiko Matsunaka put on a power display, blasting two
opposite-field home runs to finish with three hits and three RBIs,
helping lift the Pacific League's third-place Hawks to a 7-2 win over
the first-place Saitama Seibu Lions on Wednesday.

The Hawks ended their longest skid in nine years--seven-games--on
Sunday, and finished off a sweep of a short two-game series with 15,674
on hand at Seibu Dome for their third straight victory.

"I didn't get the job done yesterday, so today I wanted to come out
and work hard to get it done today," said Matsunaka, who went deep in
the seventh and ninth innings when the game was very much in doubt.

"We can't afford to fall further behind Seibu and everyone wanted to
win these two games," said the slugger, who upped his homer total to 16
and brought Fukuoka to within four games of the top spot.

Starter Rick Guttormson (4-4) cruised through most of his 6-2/3 innings to earn his first win since June 11.

The right-hander allowed two runs on five hits, two walks and a hit batter, while fanning four.

"I felt good today and I wanted to be aggressive and work inside,"
said Guttormson, who left with two runners on in the seventh.

"They're aggressive batters and I just tried to match up.

"They do have a lot of power and that's why I watched [Toshiya]
Sugiuchi pitch yesterday, and he pitched them in a lot and kept them
off balance.

"I think that's what you have to do to them, to these guys with all
their power. You can't let them get their arms extended, they'll start
hitting the ball out of the park."

The Lions only extended their losing streak. It reached three games, their second such skid of the season.

An error and two questionable efforts on catchable flies didn't make
for a smooth run for the Lions, who fell behind in the first inning.

Lions ace Hideaki Wakui (7-7) got knocked around early, but pitched
his way around Seibu's shoddy play in the field, fanning eight--with
five consecutive outs at one point coming via the strikeout--to keep
Seibu in the game after six innings.

The righty yielded nine hits and a walk, and one of the four runs he allowed was unearned.

The Hawks jumped on him from the get-go. Mitsuru Honda hit a popup
that looked playable, but the three Lions failed to come up with it,
and Munenori Kawasaki followed with a solid single up the middle.

Nobuhiro Matsuda drove in the first run, whacking a hard single to
left. After a flyout, Michael Restovich got the first of his two RBIs
singles, poking a ball into right for a 2-0 SoftBank lead.

The Lions got a run back on Yoshihito Ishii's clutch double to
left-center field in the second inning, but Restovich made the Lions
pay for an error on Yasuyuki Kataoka--who turned a double-play ball
into no outs by juggling the ball--by singling to center for a 3-1
cushion.

Toru Hosokawa's two-out RBI double in the fourth shaved a run off
the lead before Matsuda struck again, launching his ninth longball of
the season to leadoff the fifth. Matsunaka's 15th of the season, a solo
blast leading off the seventh, made it 5-2.

The Lions loaded the bases off Guttormson and C.J. Nitkowski in the
seventh, but Yuki Kume got Hiroyuki Nakajima to hit a lazy fly to left
to end the threat.